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With much fanfare, we launched ecycler at TechCrunch50—it was September 2009. Our primary goal was to create the one stop place for recycling. We moved beyond traditional recycling (paper, bottles, etc.) into what we called, shippables. These materials are recyclable, but not having enough value for someone to pick them up. The third phase (never implemented) would have been junk pickup.

We focused our energies on growth, not revenues.

We won $20,000 during the Fairfield Challenge for demonstrating our Social Media prowess—including a facebook best page commendation from Inc. Magazine—awesome! For the challenge, we visited 13 cities over 15 stays at the Fairfield Inn–we talked to business owners about how to make their recycling easier. And, many registered on ecycler to try us out.

With the winnings, we commissioned an iPhone app, a fun recycling game called iCanRecycle. We also invested in the ecycler Canada site–thanks Vancouver for being our guinea pig.

We’ve recycled hundreds of pounds of materials via the site; everything from aluminum cans to VHS tapes to Crayons. And, we had some fun along the way with our weekly Crush that Can episodes, all of which can still be viewed by following that to YouTube.

But, our magic wasn’t enough to maintain the business plan. As of the end of 2013, we’ve shuttered ecycler, a (once) new way to recycle online.

Thanks to everyone that had a chance to make the world a better place by recycling something with ecycler. For the time being, we’ve taken down the main site and replaced with our blog. Please take advantage of the years’ worth of knowledge collected here and learn a thing or two about recycling!